Because I Don't Have Enough To Do

Where are all my guessers for where we're going over Thanksgiving???  Have I stumped you, or is it just too obvious?  Remember, each clue has a keyword that gives you hints to our destination.  Anyhoo, here's the next clue...

Travel Clue #1: Abraham Lincoln
Travel Clue #2: What you talkin' about Willis?
Travel Clue #3: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Travel Clue #4:  The New Millennium 


About two years ago I got a wild hair in my butt.  That hair told me to make a rainbow birthday cake for Little Miss.  Actually, I stole the idea from my gal pal, Jamie.  She did one for her sweet little thing.  It was the cutest cake ever.  Seriously, her's was the cutest thing ever.  Mine was, well, just cute.

Anyway, how cute or not cute the rainbow cake was, is not the point.  The point is every year after that cake, I have made Little Miss' birthday cakes.  Her third birthday was a Pink-n-Purple Party.  Her cake was a six layer pink and purple striped cake.  Little Man watched me make the entire thing, which is quite time consuming, and then let out a question a mom never wants to hear.

Mommy, how come you don't make me a birthday cake?

Ouch.  I felt so horrible.  That night I promised Little Man I would make his 6th birthday cake.  That's where this all started.  I had to step out of my Rainbow Cake world.

Thankfully, Wilton came to the rescue.  Wilton's Football Cake Pan, that is.  It saved my life.  However, it wasn't going to be enough to serve all of our guests.  I thought about making a two layer rectangle cake to make it look like a football field and then stacking the football on top of that, but I wasn't sure about the weight of the football.

Then I was searching Pinterest.  Gosh, I love Pinterest.  I came across these mini rainbow cakes.  It involved baking a large rainbow cake and then using circular tube to press out mini cakes.  It got my wheels spinning. What if I made two layer orange and blue mini cakes?  Yep, that would work perfectly.  Here's what I did...

First I made a white box cake (gasp...yes, I made a box cake!).  Then I divided the cake mix into two bowls (I eyeballed it).  Little Miss and Chunky Monkey helped me stir in the Wilton's gel coloring.  

Aren't they cutie pies???

The next part is is simple.  Actually, it all is.  Just pour the blue cake mix into a 12 count muffin pan and the orange in a 12 count muffin pan and bake.  Allow them to cool, then chop off the muffin top. Now you are ready to dirty ice.  I learned this from Jamie.  Basically, you ice a thin layer all over and let it 'dry' so when you do the real icing, it seals the crumbs in.

After dirty icing all 24 cupcakes, spread a layer of icing on top of the color you want to be on the bottom.  I wanted the blue on bottom and orange on top.  So a thick layer of icing went on the blue.  Next, flip the orange cupcake on top like this...

If I had all the time in the world, I would have taken a bread knife and made each mini cake uniform cylinders, but let's get real.  I don't have a ton of spare time.  

The last part was the most time consuming.  Icing all 12 mini cakes.  Holy Moly.  I was in the kitchen forever!!!  My biggest problem was icing each cake while they were all so close together, and then adding the detail along the bottom with the decorating tip.  I just couldn't work with everything in such a tight space. This is precisely why I am not a cake decorator.  Nope, if I ever have to go back to work it will have to be teaching.

Anyway, this was the final product.  Not to bad, but not too good anyway.  

My biggest 'Ah-Ha' moment was I had twelve mini cakes, and guess what??? Chicago Bears has 12 letters.  Man oh man, did the heavens open up for me that one.